When a civilization
becomes so at odds with the very reason for its existence and barbarians howl
at the gates, often a warrior appears with a single-minded purpose to save
civilization. Such a warrior was General Ethan Allen Hitchcock. However, the general
carried within himself what could be called the “victim’s guilt.” Ethan Allen
Hitchcock looked into the mirror and he saw a murderer. Hitchcock had persuaded
Zachary Taylor to attack Mexico.

“You
have to do it,” Hitchcock had told Taylor, “otherwise Quitman will take
California and bring it into the union as a slave state.”

“Quitman!”
Taylor shouted. “Always Quitman! First Cuba, now California. Is there no way
out of this?”

“Sir,
it’s simple. California is closer to Texas, than it is to Washington, D.C. We
don’t have any choice. California will become a state, it is up to us to decide
whether it will be free or slave.”

Zachary
Taylor neither asked for a declaration of war from Congress nor received
authorization from President Polk, nonetheless he attacked Mexico. The pain,
suffering and blood to win the Mexican war, though ghastly, was necessary if
Taylor and Hitchcock were to bottle up Quitman’s slaveholding South.

3 1 4 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

The
Mexican War made Zachary Taylor a hero. His popularity got him elected the
twelfth President of the United States. Taylor’s term started well enough.
California was admitted into the union as a free state. But then disaster
struck. It all happened so quickly. In February, Zach flew off the handle and
told a delegation of southern congressmen and senators that he would hang any
secessionist daring to lead any state out of the union. In June, Quitman
retaliated by convening his Nashville Secessionist Convention. Nine days later,
Zachary Taylor directed a federal grand jury to indict Quitman for his role in
Narciso Lopez’s invasion of Cuba. Then on July 4,1850, President Taylor took
ill. He died three days later, retching up a mysterious black slime. The
pro-slavery planter and Governor of Mississippi had outsmarted them again. And
now Quitman’s masonic, pro-slavery thugs would be unstoppable unless Ethan
Allen Hitchcock could redeem himself.

During
the Mexican War. Hitchcock had recruited a number of spies and agents from St. Catharines.
They were dependable, committed and intelligent. As a community, the Cathars
had been involved in the struggle against the domination of the illuminati for
centuries. Hitchcock had been initiated into England’s Order of the Rose, France’s
Order of the Lily and Austria’s Order of the Double Eagle. In the United
States, Hitchcock sat on the Council of Three for the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis.
Hitchcock’s initiations gave him status with the Cathars who fully supported free
statehood for Kansas. They welcomed him to St. Catharines to recruit volunteers
to further the cause. Observing and selecting prospective recruits, Hitchcock
was generally looking for young, unattached males who would fight. But in Ellen
Collins, Hitchcock recognized a rare individual ___ someone who was meant to
serve the cause.

When Ellen
arrived in Canada, the St. Catharines fugitives readily accepted her as one of
them. Harriett Tubman, who maintained a residence among the former slaves, finds
Ellen fascinating.

“Ellen
Collins and I had quite an adventure,” Freddie Douglas confided to Harriett on
one of his visits.

“Tell
me about it,” she asked.

Freddie
relates the whole story. Throughout his narrative, all Harriett can say is, “That
poor child! That poor child!” From then on, Harriett becomes Ellen’s second
mother. The underground railroad conductor introduces Ellen to the Cathar
community’s elder.

“We established
St. Catharines for the purpose of assisting fugitive slaves,” the elder
explains to Ellen. “We give fugitives plots of land and help them build homes.”
The elder is over sixty, but Ellen marvels at how young he appears.

“His
family comes from France,” Harriett tells Ellen. “They were some of the first Europeans
to settle among and live with the Indians.” The Cathar elder, himself, looks
remarkably like an Indian.

“Once
the fugitives are settled in their homes,” the elder continues, “we teach them
how to read and write.” The elder stares at Ellen for a long time before
asking, “How would you like to help
teach some of your people, particularly the children, to read and write?”

“I’ve
never taught before,” Ellen explains.

“No
matter,” the elder says. “You have what is needed.”

“What
is needed?”

“Yes,”
Harriett Tubman agrees. “What is needed is love. And no one I know needs love
more than you.” “You will be helping yourself as much as you’ll be helping
anyone else,” the elder adds.

“How is
that?” Ellen asks.

“We Cathars
believe that by bringing more and more love into your life, you bring yourself
joy and pleasure,” the elder says. “Love is nothing more than helping someone
become aware.”

“Become
aware?” Ellen is puzzled.

“We
teach many things: farming, construction, dressmaking and boot making. We teach
how to work with metals and how to care for animal. But what we are really doing
is making people aware of how they are connected with others and the rest of
the universe. You’ll see.”

Ellen throws herself into teaching. Her class
is crowded and the work is exhausting. She loves it. The more she teaches the
more she learns. The elder provides a cabin to hold classes as well books and
writing materials. Teaching her people attracts Ellen to the Cathars’ beliefs. The
Cathar religion differs from Christianity. The Cathars build no wondrous church
with architecture spiraling skyward in an attempt to impress the very heavens with
the foolishness of human pride. The Cathars believe that wonders are found within
the soul of man and that beauty is life, itself. The sole purpose of living,
the Cathars teach, is to experience and share love. Each evening Ellen meditates upon the Cathar Creed:

The
Church of Love has no structure, only understanding.

It has
no rivals; it does not compete.

It has
no ambition; it seeks to serve.

It has
no membership, save those who belong.

It
acknowledges all great teachers who have shown the truth of Love.

It has
no secrets, no Arcanum, no initiation save that ALL THAT BELONG, BELONG.

By the
time General Hitchcock arrives at St. Catharine’s, Ellen had been transformed
by her Cathar beliefs. ___ and her transformation is visible. She is no longer weak
with guilt; she is now strong and self-confident through knowledge. is the very
person that Hitchcock loses no time recruiting Ellen for his crusade.

Despite
numerous treaties, the Democrat-controlled Congress passed a homesteading act
giving away the Indian lands in Kansas. Using the rules of “squatter sovereignty,” homesteaders can
obtain clear title to forty-, eighty- or one hundred and twenty-acre parcels of
land that will be worth millions in less than twenty years. From all over the south,
gamblers, mercenaries and slave catchers pour into Kansas. Registering with
local vigilance committees as being sound on the goose, these men harass and
kill ‘free soil’ homesteaders. Gangs of these ‘bushwhackers’ and ‘border
ruffians’ file numerous land claims on behalf of large plantation owners as
well as for themselves. Agents of eastern banking interests, including Caleb
Cushing and his Boston Brahmins also connive to control large parcels of Kansas
land. In the face of such daunting competition, Hitchcock and those he
represents ____ the Massachusetts
Emigrant and the Anti-Slavery Societies ___
recruit free soil homesteaders to go to Kansas, claim land for
themselves and work to bring Kansas into the union as a ‘free’ state. So while
Hitchcock recruits Cathars in the cause of saving Kansas, he is not expecting
to recruit any Negroes. Nevertheless, when Ethan Allen Hitchcock leaves St. Catharines,
his band of one hundred ‘free soilers’ includes Ellen Collins, Shields Green
and Frank Yerby.

“This
is a roundabout way to get into Kansas,” Yerby observes. “Wouldn’t the railroad
been a more direct route?” Yerby, Ellen and Hitchcock gather on the lower deck
of the River Maiden steaming “up” the Missouri River towards Kansas City where they
plan to transfer to another riverboat bound for Lawrence. Ellen didn’t mind
river travel. The rocking of the River Maiden butting against the current was
therapeutic. During the trip, her nightmares had stopped and for the first time
in years, she was getting a full night sleep.

“This
is not a roundabout way to Kansas,” General Hitchcock replies. “This is the
only way homesteaders with free state sympathies can get into Kansas. No ‘free
soilers’ ride the rails across Missouri, unmolested.”

“Howdy, folks!” Shields Green joins the group.
Whites and blacks in the third class section are allowed to intermingle freely.

“Hello, Shields,” Ellen smiles. The affection
between the two is pronounced. Ellen feels closer to Shields than she does to her
own twin brother. “Been talkin’ to some of the boys down in the boilers,” Shields
says. “They say that on the last several trips when this here boat stops at Leavenworth,
men come on board and take passengers off.”

“Which
passengers?” Hitchcock asks.

“They
says that its mainly northerners, the ones they call abolitionists.”

Army
officers in the first class section on their way to the Fort Leavenworth had told
Hitchcock the same thing. “That doesn’t sound good,” Hitchcock mutters.

The
Fugitive Slave Law not only authorized slave catchers but also vigilance
committees. Under the guise of maintaining law and order, vigilance committees
were, in reality, pro-slavery thugs who blocked every route into Kansas. Southern
planters grabbing as much free land as they could, by force and populating the Kansas
territory with southern sympathizers and their slaves, used these thugs to keep
out the free soil homesteaders. Only those “sound on the goose” were allowed into
Kansas. Approaching Leavenworth, Hitchcock surveys the river banks.

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 1 9

“Look
there,” Hitchcock whispers. The general motions to the shore opposite the Leavenworth
docks. “They’ve installed batteries across the river,”

“What
does that mean?” Yerby asks.

“It
means that no riverboat captain dares continue upriver without permission from
Leavenworth,” Hitchcock says. “It means that we are going to be boarded.”

The River
Maiden’s pounding paddlewheel slows and the triple-decker begins angling over
towards the docks at Leavenworth. “I’m on my way up to the first class section,”
Hitchcock tells Yerby. “Explain to the others that my presence must be kept
strictly confidential. Is that understood?”

Yerby
nods.

Hitchcock
skips —which was something to see for a man of his age and girth —up to the
first class section, where he joins the army officers. They are preparing to
disembark for Fort Leavenworth. Colonel Henry Leavenworth established the fort on
the Missouri River in 1827 to protect the Santa Fe Trail from the Indians. Now
the army is less occupied with protecting white settlers passing through
Indian’s lands than protecting whites settling on Indians lands. “Hitchcock
wants his presence to be kept secret,” Yerby chuckles to Ellen. He also tells
Tom Boone and the other Cathers.

The River Maiden pulls alongside Leavenworth’s
wharf. The riverboat had not fully docked before a party of armed men, dressed
in every imaginable costume, including Indian feathers and vests, swarm up the
gangway. Ignoring the first class passengers, the boarders take control of the
lower two decks.

“All
the second class and steerage passengers on deck!” shouts a dark-visaged, bearded
officer. “Ladies and gentlemen, for those traveling to Kansas City and on to
St. Louis, we regret this interruption.” Davy Atchison slaps a short riding
quirt to his side. “We understand that a group of troublemakers sent by
abolitionists in Boston are on this boat. As representatives of the Vigilance
Committee for Leavenworth, we don’t rightly intend to let them continue.” The boarding
party searches the passenger cabins and seizes bags and belongings of the free
soil homesteaders, pitching them unceremoniously off the riverboat onto the
wharf. A slave gang retrieves the
homesteader’s belongings and hauls them away.

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 2 1

“I have
a list of names,” Atchison continues. “If you would please disembark this boat
when I call your name, it will be a lot easier for all of us. Please remember
that, not only do we have your names, but we can identify all of you.” Atchison
calls out the names of Hitchcock’s recruits, along with the names of other ‘free
soilers.’ Armed men march them down the gangway.

“…Ellen Collins …Shields Green …,” Atchison drawls
the last two names. Frank Yerby’s name is not on the list. It’s as if Yerby is
invisible. So he just follows after the others. Once the homesteaders are marched
off of the riverboat, they are taken to a great muddy pit, sectioned off by
empty packing crates and patrolled by armed guards. Coarse, grubby-looking men converge
on the muddy pit to leer at the latest crop of free soil homesteaders. The
ruffians gather ‘claim’ the homesteaders and their valuables. The ruffians plan
to rob them of anything they can use to pay off gambling debts or to purchase
rotgut whiskey, a bowl of beans or a piece of meat. Laughing and jabbing at
each other, the thugs begin make their ‘claims.’ Before returning their baggage,
Davy Atchison and his vigilantes have already rifled through their belongings, confiscating
their weapons and stealing their money.

“Don’t ya’ll
come back this way or try to get into Kansas agin,” Atchison bawls out at them,
“or we’ll skin you, alive.”

Without
money or weapons, the homesteaders mill about trying to decide whether to risk
continuing the trek into Kansas on foot or find a way back home. “I, for one,
intend to continue on to Lawrence,” Tom Boone announces.

Across
from where the free soil homesteaders were interned is gambler’s row. Here alcohol,
cards and prostitutes control the lives of Leavenworth’s pro-slavery thugs. Most
of gambler’s row is seedy and ill-kept. But amid the dilapidated shanties,
there is a spacious and well-built hotel. Above the swinging doors, in great
bold letters, a sign reads: A. B. MILLER. Miller’s satisfies all of Leavenworth’s vices.
It has the town’s best stocked bar and it’s most active gambling parlor. Day
and night, the border ruffians guzzle Miller’s rotgut whiskey while gambling at
the roulette, faro and poker tables. Though most know that the ‘house’ always
wins, they don’t seem to care. Upstairs, Miller’s has rooms where patrons avail
themselves of the town’s ladies of the evening. Leavenworth’s vigilance committee
is the only law in town ___ a law that is thoroughly “sound on the goose.” Leavenworth’s
vigilance committee is headquartered at A.B. Miller’s hotel.

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 2 3

The
Democratic Party chose Miller and his cronies to represent their interests in
Leavenworth. All were members of Leavenworth’s King Solomon Lodge #10,
affiliated with the York rite. The Boston Brahmins own A.B. Miller’s hotel and just
about everything else in Leavenworth.. The Democratic Party provides the
alcohol and gambling tables. They provide the weapons, including the artillery
battery guarding the Missouri river. Caleb Cushing, now the Attorney General of
the United States under President Franklin Pierce, takes a personal interest in
the Leavenworth operation. A modern telegraph office connects the Attorney
General’s private office directly to Leavenworth and Cushing’s personal representative,
Louise Collins.

Inside
her private office at A.B. Miller’s saloon, Louise uses binoculars to look over
the newest group of ‘free soil’ homesteaders. To her surprise, she spies her
aunt standing in the mud with the other detainees. Her heart beats a little
quicker. That can ’t be her, Louise tells herself. She sits there, staring at her
aunt a long time, trying to think of what to do. Louise can’t believe her eyes.

“Who’s
that woman standing with the other nigger lovers out there?” Louise asks.

3 2 4 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

Atchison
looks over his lists. “Ellen Collins.”

Louise face
lights up with a grin. She goes over to her desk and scribbles out a short note.
It reads: Ellen Collins here. Please advise. Louise. “Send this message,
priority and secret, to Mr. Cushing’s office,” she instructs Atchison. “Bring
me his reply as soon as you receive it.”

“Yes ma’m,”
Atchison replies.

After
he leaves, Louise looks over at the figure slumped on the sofa in the corner. “Well,
Billy boy, my prayers have been answered.”

“What
prayers?” the handsome young man on the sofa asks, “Honey, you ain’t no praying
lady!”

“I’ve
got her!”

“Got
who, hon?” Billy Quantrill sits up.

“Ellen
Collins,” Louise says. “She’s in that party of nigger lovin’ free soilers that Davy
took off the River Maiden.

“Ellen Collins?”
Billy whistles, “Your aunt? The one who had your mother killed by those
abolitionists?”

“The
very one, ”Louise hisses. “Now that I’ve got her and she’s going to pay!”

“Are
you going to tell Caleb?”

“Course,
doll-baby,” Louise replies. “Sent the telegraph just now. We should hear from
him soon.”

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 2 5

When
Louise Collins graduated from the Boston schools, she decided to make her mark
in politics. She wrote Chief Justice Roger Taney, praising him for his Dred
Scott decision. Taney replied recommending that Louise contact Caleb Cushing. Cushing
had never met a woman like Louise. First he made the precocious teenager his
mistress and then his apprentice. Cushing taught Louise the art of politics,
from the perspective of its dark underside. Louise learned to deceive and betray.
She acquired and passed on information by preying on an individual’s petty
vices ___ gambling, drinking and sex. When Louise proved more than capable at
learning all he had to teach, Cushing sent her to Leavenworth as his personal
representative. “Your job is to prevent free soil homesteaders from entering the
Kansas territory,” he told his protégé. “We want Kansas to come into the union a
slave state. Do you think you can do that?”

“You
trained me,” Louise teases.

“I’m
depending on you,” Caleb Cushing told her.

“I
won’t let you down, Sugar Lamb.” Louise Collins had kissed the Attorney General
of the United States on top of his bald head before setting off on her great
adventure.

John
Quitman also had an agent for Kansas. He recruited Billy Quantrill. Quitman
knew the Quantrills of Kentucky as well as he knew the Crittendens. Though
Cushing swore both Louise and Billy in as federal agents, he suggested that
Louise could gain more control over Billy Quantrill if she seduced him. It
would also give Cushing some leverage over his grand master. Of course, he would never use it. In Leaveanworth, Louise and Billy drive away homesteaders,
steal parcels of land, poison wells and ruin crops. But despite the foulness of
their deeds and the hurt they impose on so many innocent white people, Louise
and Billy love each other. Now Louise thinks about her aunt. The pain that she
has wreaked on strangers is nothing like the pain she intends to inflict on
Ellen Collins.

“If Caleb
turns her over to me,” Louise muses, “I’m gonna let our boys have some fun with
her awhile. Then I’m gonna work her upstairs, until nobody wants her any more. Then
I’m going to throw her out into the street.” The thought of Ellen’s being raped
by the scum of Leavenworth and then made to work in Miller’s brothel arouses
Louise’s passions. She looks over at Billy and going over to where he sits, she
starts playing with his hair. “Caleb’s smart,” she continues. “His plan to stop
all them nigger lovin’ homesteaders here in Leavenworth is pure genius. Not
only are we turning the nigger lovers around and heading them back to where
they came from, but our boys are able to take enough loot off these clod-hoppers
to make it worth our while. And we’re making a profit.”

“A
profit!” Quantrill laughs. “I’ll say we’re making a profit, especially since
these good ole boys keep bringing everything they’ve got right back here to
Miller’s.”

Billy is
not happy. Louise drives him wild, but he knows that she’s right. So he decides
to pump some information out of her. Whenever Billy goes home, Quitman wants to
know everything Louise is planning. Usually Billy doesn’t feel right about reporting
on the woman he loves, but needs to tell the governor something.

“We
took more Sharp’s rifles from those nigger lovers going to Lawrence, today,”
Billy says.

“Why
the Sharps rifle is about the best rifle in the territory,” Billy asserts. “The
Sharp’s repeating rifle can fire as rapidly as a shooter could cock, insert a
bullet into the breech and pull the trigger. A man armed with a Sharp’s rifle can
hold off twenty men or more.”

The Reverend
Henry Ward Beecher has provided so many Sharp’s repeating rifles to the homesteaders
recruited by the Massachusetts Emigrant Society to settle in Kansas that the
vigilance committees began referring to the Sharp’s repeating rifles as Beecher’s
Bibles.

3 2 8 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

“Well, doll, you said it yourself,” Louise
purrs. “It’s like those nigger-lovin’ abolitionists are hand-delivering those
Sharp’s rifles directly to us, except they can’t be traced to us. If the government
wants to know where the Sharp’s rifles went, the records say they went to
Lawrence.”

“And you
can’t have a war if only one side is doing the shootin’, now can you?” Quantrill
quips. He watches Louise for a reaction.

“You
men,” Louise snipes back, “all you ever think about is war.” Picking up the
binoculars, she returns to the window to stare at Ellen. “Assassinations are so
much more interesting,” she says remembering her final test which involved her
first and only meeting with President Zachery Taylor. Just then there is a
knock at the door. The telegraph messenger hurries in and hands Louise a note.

“Interesting
…” she muses.

“Well
…” Quantrill asks.

“Caleb
wants me to let Aunt Ellen and the others continue on to Lawrence,” Louise says.

“… and
he wants me to go to Lawrence with them,” Louise continues. “I’m to report on
all the free state activity.”

Dismissing
the messenger, Louise looks at Billy. “Go tell Davy Atchison to put all the
passengers back on the River Maiden and let them go their way.”

“What
about their belongings?” Quantrill asks. “The boys ain’t going to like losing
their share of the loot.”

“Tell Davy
to give the passengers back their money and belongings,” Louise says, “I’ll pay
the boys their shares.” Billy slowly shakes his head. “Besides which,” she reminds him, “we’ll win
it all back tonight.” With that she breaks out into a merry laugh. “And when
you get back, Billy-boy, you come upstairs with me. We’ve got a lot to do
before I leave for Lawrence.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Stoddard
Hoyt migrated to Lawrence before the Kansas land rush. He and other Quakers
came to assist the Indians. The vigilantes didn’t recognize any Indian rights
___ neither their right to lands given to them by treaty nor even their right
to live. Any Indian land that the whites wanted, they took. Any Indians,
remaining on the land, the whites murdered. Any Indians defending themselves, white
vigilantes killed not only them, but their families and whole tribes in nearby villages,
as well. The Quakers who came to Kansas appealed to the Federal garrison at
Fort Leavenworth to stop the massacres, but their appeals were ignored. And
there was little else they could do. With the passage of the Kansas homestead
act, the Quakers and the other good Christians decided to make Lawrence the
center of free thought and white homesteaders’ rights. Because Stoddard Hoyt
had an even disposition and sensitive nature, Lawrence’s Christian community
selected him to be mayor of Lawrence. But on election day, March 30th 1855, the
day set for Kansas voters to elect their territorial representatives, the
Democratic party and their law and order vigilance committees decided to
prevent Stoddard Hoyt and Lawrence’s free thinking Christian homesteaders from
upseting their plans for turning Kansas into a slave state.

Frank
Yerby paces nervously about, pausing only occasionally to peek out the door at
the hundreds of riders swarming past the schoolhouse.

“There
are a heck of a lot of men out there,” he announces.

The
continual pounding of the passing horses shakes the one room schoolhouse
causing the walls to waver. Attempting to shore up the walls, Shields says, “This
school house ain’t gonna stand much longer, iffen them riders decide to start
bumpin’ into it.”

“Possibly
we’d better head into town,” Yerby suggests. “If those ruffians attack Lawrence, our only escape
will be across the Kansas River.” The Kansas River was on the opposite side of
town.

“Don ’t
be silly,” Louise Collins retorts, “those men aren’t going to attack this schoolhouse.
Today we white folks are voting. Those men are coming here to vote just like
every other law abiding white person in Kansas.”

When
Ellen and the others homesteaders are taken back aboard the River Maiden to
continue their journey to Lawrence, to her surprise, she discovers that her
niece, Louise, is among the riverboat’s passengers. “Oh Louise, Louise,” Ellen cries,
“I am so happy to see you.”

“I’m
opening a school in Lawrence,” Ellen replies. Tears of happiness stream down
her face.

“A
school!” Louise responds. “Fiddle dee dee! I do declare, Aunt Ellen, you do the
most interesting things. I can see why my mamma was so taken with you.”

“Oh,
Louise, your poor mother!” Ellen cries. “How I miss her.”

“Yes,”
Louise replies. “So do I.” Hate smolders in her Louise’s eyes, but Ellen does
not see it.

“Oh,
you poor child,” Ellen hugs her niece, again. “I know you must miss her
terribly.” Ellen keeps chattering to her niece while Louise responds just
enough to hide her true feelings and keep Ellen talking. “But what are you
doing here,” Ellen asks.

“I’m on
my way to St. Louis,” Louise explains. “After I graduated from school, I wanted
to see some of the country. I’m sorta working my way from one place to another.”

“Then
why don’t you come to Lawrence with me?” Ellen says.

“I
don’t want to be a bother, Aunt Ellen,” Louise says. “I miss mother so much, I
wouldn’t want my emotional needs to interfere with you are taking such an
important position.”

“You
could never interfere or be a burden,” Ellen protests. “I couldn’t think of
anything more wonderful than for you to join me in Lawrence.”

“Well,
if you really want me,” Louise says, “I’ll join you.”

“Oh
Louise, I’m so happy,” Ellen says.

“… but
if I become a burden,” Louise cautions, “let know and I’ll be on the next
riverboat to St. Louis.”

And the two women, assisted by Yerby and
Green, go to Lawrence and on the outskirts where the town council has set aside
a parcel of land, they build their
school. After they establish themselves in their schoolhouse, Louise does not even
bother to be cordial. But in organizing Lawrence’s first school, Louise is tireless.
Instead of waiting for people to come and inquire about the school, Louise
surveys the town and even visits homesteaders outside Lawrence, to see how many
school-aged children are potential students. She is often gone for days at a
time spreading the news that education has come to Lawrence. When the school
opens, children make the trek to
Lawrence’s school house from as much as ten miles away as a result of Louise’s
enthusiasm. She even suggests that the adults of Lawrence also have learning
needs and she takes on the responsibility for teaching adult political
education classes, herself.

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 3 3

Yerby
continues his pacing back and forth to the door. “These men are not going to hurt you,” Louise
scolds “Why don’t you just sit down and relax …or else go to your cabin. You’re
bothering me. You niggers are so afraid of the least little thing. It’s no
wonder you need white people to take care of you and a white God to look over
you.”

“Then
why are these men here?” Yerby asks. His steady brown eyes penetrate through
Louise’s pretensions.

“How
should I know,” Louise glares at Ellen as if she instead of Yerby had asked the
question. “But if you’re so scared, you should take your two darkies and go. As
for me, I’ll stay right here, thank you.” And with that, she skips out the door
while tying a great bow in the white ribbon she had placed in her hair. “You
don’t fool me, Missy. Your daddy’s half black and his momma, your grandmamma,
is all black! The same blood running through Shields is running through you,
only its been diluted some.”

Outside,
the horses send up swirls up dust and dirt, darkening the sky and blotting out
the sun. Wave after wave of fierce, heavily armed Missouri ruffians continue to
ride into Lawrence. Now it Is too late for anyone to leave the schoolhouse and
Louise is forced back inside.

The
riders overrun Lawrence, trampling through gardens, crashing through fences,
toppling huts and shanties. Displaying the arrogance of an invading army, the
ruffians challenge Lawrence’s residents’ with pitiless eyes and menacing
weapons. Horses bump against the schoolhouse more frequently now. The walls shudder with each bump. Inside, the dust
is so thick that breathing is nearly impossible. Choking and coughing, Ellen
finds kerchiefs to filter the dust from to their mouths and noses. The
kerchiefs also filter out the pungent odor of horse droppings.

“Do you
think the schoolhouse will hold up?” Yerby shouts to Shields over the din of
snorting, neighing horses and shouting, yelling men.

“Don’t
know,” Shields shouts back, “But I reckon we gonna find out, that’s for sure.”
He looks around for something to prop up the wall. Eyeing the long wooden benches
used by students, he shouts to Frank, “We can use these benches to brace the
walls.” They wedge the benches against the corners, adding much needed support
to the buckling walls. “Put your weight against the benches,” Shields yells to Ellen.
Frank struggles with a buckling wall. Even Louise joins the effort realizing
that being ‘sound on the goose’ won’t matter if the schoolhouse comes crashing
down with her inside.

Just as
it seems that nothing will keep the walls from collapsing on them, the horses
begin to slow from a gallop to a trot and then to a walk. Finally, the horses
come to a complete stop and their riders dismount and mill about. Their
officers organize the ruffians into companies. Though they don’t look it, these
men are thoroughly disciplined. Organized and drilled as units of the Knights
of the Golden Circle, they are the foundation of the Confederate army. Most are
veterans of the Mexican War. Some even participated in the campaigns to grab
land in Canada. All of them have enjoyed the Indian ‘wars.’ Now they bushwhack homesteaders
and jump homesteader claims. Riding in packs and fighting like wolves, they are
very well trained to by their company commanders, A.B. Miller, Davy Atchison
and William Quantrill.

As soon
as she can manage it, Louise slips out of the schoolhouse and meets Billy Quantrill
on the other side of Lawrence near the Kansas River. “Billy,” Louise squeals,
as she flies into his arms. Their lips meet and they hold onto each other in a
passionate embrace. When finally they separate and gaze into each other’s eyes,
Louise murmurs, “You boys sure know how to make an entrance.”

“After
today we’re gonna control Kansas and get rid of every nigger-loving free soiler
in the territory,” Quantrill boasts. “The vigilance committee has taken over
the polling place and our men are voting by companies.” Quantrill kisses Louise,
again. “After their companies vote, Miller and Atchinson will ride back to Missouri.
My company will collect all the ballots and take then to Lecompton where we’ll count
the votes. Nothing has been left to chance.”

A frown
clouds Louise’s face, as often happens when she tries to think of what could go
wrong. “What if the free soilers do the same thing in another town?”

“Don’t
worry,” Quantrill replies. He retrieves a small cigar from his vest pocket. “We’ve
taken over every

polling
place in Kansas.”

And so they
did. When the election is over and all the votes are tallied, the law and order
vigilance candidates affiliated with the Democratic Party win every seat in the
Kansas territorial legislature except one. The law and order representatives lose
no time adopting Missouri’s state constitution as the model for the Kansas
constitution. But their slave codes are even tougher than Missouri’s. The penalty
for anyone enticing, decoying or carrying any slave belonging to another out of
Kansas is death. The penalty for aiding or helping a slave escape to freedom is
death. Anyone convicted of publishing, circulating, printing or writing anything
that argues against the right of a person to hold slaves will receive a
five-year jail sentence. Anyone holding any opinion opposing the right of whites
to own slaves, if convicted, will be jailed for five years. Caleb Cushing, Jefferson
Davis and, above all, John Quitman, are overjoyed with their success. Kansas is
now safely in their control and will be admitted to the Union as a slave state.

3 3 8 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

Tom
Boone comes out to the school to see how Ellen has faired. “Don’t look like
they left you much,” he observes, surveying the damage.

“Shields braced the schoolhouse walls and
prevented them from collapsing,” Ellen replies. “But the cabins in the rear
were crushed and everything inside them was destroyed. They destroyed our
vegetable garden. Louise went to Kansas City to get some seed and supplies.”

“So we
heard,” Tom responds. “You are not alone. Not one vegetable plot in the whole
town survived. Looks like the vigilantes plan to starve us out.”

“Have
you heard about the outcome of the election?” Yerby asks Boone.

“Not
good,” Boone replies. “The vigilantes took control of the legislature. The
mayor wants to discuss it at a town meeting tonight. Hope to see you there.” With
that Tom Boone heads back into town.

All of
Lawrence’s town folks and many of the free soil homesteaders from the
surrounding area attend the mayor’s meeting. “The entire process was a fraud,” Mayor
Hoyt announces to the attendees. “There are only 369 registered voters in
Lawrence, but 1,034 votes were cast.” Stoddard Hoyt waits for the town folks to
absorb the implication of his announcement. “Lecompton is controlled by the pro-slavery
law and order party. They have enacted a constitution making Kansas a slave
state. What do you think we should do?”

3 4 0 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

“What
can we do?” one of the homesteaders asks. “Governor Reeder won’t support us. The
ruffians and bushwhackers put him in power.”

“Governor
Reeder promised to order a new elections wherever a case of fraud is
indicated,” Mayor Hoyt responds, “I believe we have enough evidence to prove
that the election here in Lawrence was fraudulent.”

“If
there is another election here in Lawrence,” a homesteader shouts out, “what’s
to prevent the same thing from happening again?”

“ ___ or
worse?” someone else shouts.

There
was a pause in the discussion. Everyone knows the answer to that question.

“I came
to Kansas to raise my family on my own land,” one stern-faced homesteader
declares. “I want to be free to enjoy all the benefits of this great country. I‘m
not running away. I’m staying to fight. Who’s with me?”

A great
cheer goes up. The people release their pent-up emotions. They cheer and clap
and allow themselves the pure joy of believing that, despite everything, they
can keep their land. The meeting breaks up with the decision to invite free
soilers from all over Kansas to participate in a free state convention.

Months
later a free state convention is held in Topeka. The only free soil homesteader
elected to the Kansas territorial legislature announces his resignation. “This
is not a legislature representing the citizens of the Kansas territory,” he
shouts out. “I utterly repudiate it! It degrades the respectability of popular
government and insults the virtue and intelligence of the people.”

After
several more meetings and conventions, free soil homesteaders from all over
Kansas join together to announce a policy repudiating all aspects of slavery
and proclaiming Kansas a free state. Dr. Charles Robinson is nominated to
become the first governor of the free state of Kansas. In his acceptance
speech, Robinson demands: “Let every man stand in his place, and acquit himself
like a man. Do your duty!”

“Repudiate
the law,” laughs Louise. “You can’t repudiate the law.”

“Why
not, dear?” Ellen asks.

“Because
the law is the law,” Louise sputters. “It must be obeyed.”

“Lawrence
is fully determined to repudiate the political takeover by the slave owners,” Ellen
says. “But you are right, dear, we must not violate the law.”

“It
sounds like you people are confused,” Louise laughs. “How can you not violate
the law if you intend to repudiate it?”

“There
is nothing they can do to us if we do not violate their laws,” Ellen replies.
“We will keep as far away from the legal machinery set up by the ‘bogus
legislature ’ as possible.”

3 4 2 F
R A N K Y E R B Y :

Mayor
Hoyt meets with the pastors of Lawrence’s Presbyterian, Episcopal and
Congregational Churches and appeals to each of the pastors to work together to
resolve any disputes between and among members of their congregations. Hoyt
asks the ministers to influence their congregations to do everything they can
to support Lawrence’s policy of repudiation.

“You are aware,” Hoyt tells each pastor, “that
this decision to repudiate the laws of the bogus legislature, will make every
free state homesteader in Kansas a target for assassination.

“The law
and order party intends to use the bushwhackers and ruffians to destroy
Lawrence,” Tom Boone, says, “whether we repudiate the Kansas constitution or
not.” Boone also sits on the repudiation commission.

“Perhaps
it would be wiser to counsel our flocks to leave before it is too late,” suggests
Reverend Bishop, pastor of the Presbyterian Church.

“The
consequences of our leaving this land to those people and slavery might end
civilization as we know it in America, altogether,” Reverend Cordley of the Episcopal
congregation responds. “We already bear the guilt for the millions of
slaughtered Indians …”

“As well
as Africans and Mexicans,” Mayor Hoyt adds.

“ …but
now they are turning on white homesteaders,” Reverend Cordley continues. “It must
end somewhere.”

“We
have no choice,” the Congregationalist pastor states, “this evil clique is
never satisfied; it feeds on weakness and thrives on ignorance. We must stay
and fight.”

A V I C
T I M ’S G U I L T 3 4 3

“The days before us will be very hard,” Ellen
tells the mayor and the pastors when they call upon her. The clergymen want
Ellen to chair the repudiation committee. “I don’t know if I am able to do what
you ask.”

“But of
course you can, Auntie,” Louise tells her. “And I will be here to give you all
the help you need.”

Mayor
Hoyt beams. “You see, gentlemen, I knew we could rely on these two young
ladies.”

Looking
first to her niece and then to the religious caucus, Ellen senses that the
decision had already been made. Bowing her head she said softly, “Well, I guess
you can count on me to help these people

in
whatever way I can.” Ellen’s repudiation commission sees that none of the laws
passed by the Kansas territorial legislature guide the conduct of Lawrence’s
citizens. Lawrence’s repudiation commission agree that citizens will bring no suits
to court, bring no probates to judge and bring no complaints before the justice
of the peace.

Louise meets
with the members of her political education class. “If our policy of repudiation is to work,” Louise
tells them, “we’ve gotta be able to defend ourselves.”

“That’s
right,” one of them shouts back.

“We
need guns and cannon,” Louise says. “We need to organize companies of militia
that can be counted on when the time comes.”

Louise
and her followers force Stoddard Hoyt to order several hundred Sharp’s rifles
and howitzer cannon from Lawrence’s New England friends. Louise alerts Quantrill
of the shipment dates and times. The weapons find their way into arsenal at
Leavenworth. However, Hitchcock’s double agents in Leavenworth divert some of
the weapons back to Lawrence. In this way, Lawrence’s free soilers get possession
of some Sharp’s rifles. They even obtained a howitzer cannon. And as Kansas’
pro-slavery and free-state forces square off against each other, Ellen Collins
and her niece, Louise, though on opposite sides of the approaching conflict,
find themselves squarely in the middle.